With the development of science technology, the display screen of a terminal becomes larger and larger, and functions of the terminal are more and more diversified. Among the functions of the terminal, playing video is the most basic one. In the process of playing video, since the placement state of the terminal varies, the screen display direction of the terminal needs to be adjusted, so that to obtain a better viewing effect. A traditional manner to adjust the screen display direction is to set the screen display direction in a menu of the terminal, however, the operating procedure thereof is complex; besides, a user needs to stop playing the video to set the screen display direction, which affects the video viewing effect.
The terminal is disposed with a gravity sensor in the related art, and the gravity sensor is used to detect in every period whether the orientation of the terminal is changed, so as to adjust display direction of the screen. For example, the gravity sensor detects in every period whether the orientation of the terminal is changed, if YES, the gravity sensor detects the orientation of the terminal after the change and the screen display direction can be adjusted in time. However, due to the high sensitivity of the gravity sensor, the vibration of the terminal caused by disturbance may result in misjudgment of the gravity sensor, which can change screen display direction, and as a result, the user experience is reduced.